MOVIE REVIEW: Director Mike Mills sends a valentine to his mom with '20th Century Women'

Friday

Jan 13, 2017 at 6:45 AM

This is Mills' story, as told through his then unjaundiced 15-year-old eyes, but makes his enigmatic mother the star. His film is both a tribute to her, and a lament that her ilk no longer exist.

By Al Alexander/For The Patriot Ledger

The lovely, stirring “20th Century Women” is set in 1979, a year in which our teen protagonist comes of age, but also a year in which rock n roll and the American dream started to die a slow, agonizing death. It’s two years before Reagan and his cockeyed economic plan systematically wiped out the middle class, and two years before MTV arrived to turn music into a soulless corporate entity. It was also a time when people talked to each other – face to face, and found compassion and understanding in those light, but meaningful conversations.

It was a turning point, as we hear President Carter saying in his then infamous “Crisis of Confidence” speech; a pivot in which our country and its people made all the wrong choices, selecting greed, self-importance and consumption over unity and love for our fellow man. Mike Mills remembers that era like it was yesterday, a time when the 15-year-old future writer-director was at a crossroads himself. Would he be just another “guy” who uses and abuses women, or would he become a “man” who worships and understands the opposite sex.

This is – for better or worse – Mills’ story, as told through his then unjaundiced 15-year-old eyes. But the real star is his enigmatic mother, the woman who gave him free reign to be – and find – himself in an increasingly complex world. His film is both a tribute to her, and a lament that her ilk no longer exist in a society where “smothering” has all but replaced mothering. But he also remembers she didn’t do it alone. She had help, largely from his feminist sisters, who’ve been re-imagined here as a sexually irresponsible teenage neighbor and a 20-something border battling self-doubt and cervical cancer with equal unease.

The love – and gratitude – Mills feels for each can be felt in every joyous scene of a movie that thrives on its ability to mine honesty and truth. But it’s Annette Bening who rules the matriarchal roost as Dorothea, the 55-year-old mother of Mills’ surrogate, Jamie (a fabulous Lucas Jade Zumann), a precocious, inquisitive boy who loves skateboarding, girls and the Talking Heads, not necessarily in that order. He’s our guide, but it’s Dorothea that transfixes with her dichotomous nature toward a rapidly evolving moral and political climate she doesn’t always understand – like why it is that Jamie and her prize border, Abbie (an outstanding Greta Gerwig in a flaming-red David Bowie bob), find the punk stylings of Black Flag and The Raincoats appealing, despite the lack of vocal and musical ability of those now iconic bands.

Bening shuns all vanity, often looking like an unmade bed with her mussed hair and shabby-chic wardrobe. She even dons some of the jewelry that Mills’ late mother wore before cancer took the avid chain-smoker from him in 1999. It’s a role Bening was born to play, fully tapping her unique combination of wizened intelligence and sage-like presence. You buy that her Dorothea is constantly at odds with herself when it comes to Jamie, championing his free thinking and then admonishing him when he actually puts it to practice. And in Zumann she finds the perfect foil, a young actor more than capable of going toe-to-toe with one of Hollywood’s all-time greats.

They form the nucleus of “20th Century Women,” but Mills broadens Jamie’s spectrum through both Abbie and the kid’s unrequited crush on his slightly slutty 17-year-old neighbor, Julie (Elle Fanning), who likes sleeping with him – as long as they abstain from sex. We learn early on that both women have been commissioned by Dorothea to help her in the “proper” raising of Jamie, who, at 40 years her junior, is of an age she has little or no understanding. This leads to some wonderfully comedic moments, like Abbie and Julie offering insights on how to please women sexually, scenes that can turn utterly poignant in an instant.

As a fifth member of this tight but unconventional family, Billy Crudup’s ex-hippie, William, often gets shoved to the wayside as the other border in Dorothea’s rickety Santa Barbara home. Yet the “Jackie” star makes the most of his chances with a bittersweet portrayal of a guy totally oblivious to the effect he has on both Abbie and Dorothea when it comes to his raw sexuality. You’d like to see more of him, but this is called “20th Century Women,” and in keeping with the title, the movie is a moving valentine to the three females who Mills credits with making him the man he is today.

And what Mills is most, is a master observer of human behavior, compounded by a clear and present view of his past that remains as fresh as today’s news. It was the same with his last film, the Oscar-winning “Beginners,” which was a heartfelt tribute to his late father, who came out of the closet in his 70s. Yet, this fully realized tribute to his mother is infinitely richer and more involving, largely because of how vivid and large he’s written the roles of Dorothea, Julie and particularly Abbie, a young woman of 24 who has already lost her chance of motherhood to cancer, and is slowly losing confidence in her art as a photographer.

It’s a good bet that Gerwig – and Bening – will score Oscar nominations for their superior work. But that doesn’t mean you should overlook Fanning, who may only be 18, but as an actress she’s wise well beyond her years. What she does with the thinly written character of Julie is impressive in both its depth and complexity. And her scene with Bening after Dorothea spots Julie sneaking into her son’s room, is one of the film’s best moments, especially when the conversation turns to cigarettes. When Julie tries to bum a smoke, Dorothea refuses, telling the girl – straight faced – that it’s bad for you. Julie counters, saying “you smoke all the time.” To which Dorothea replies without an ounce of irony, that “when I started, they weren’t bad for you – just stylish.” Great stuff. Just like the dreamy score by Roger Neill and a soundtrack full of left-of-the-dial punk favorites from the likes of Black Flag, The Raincoats, Talking Heads, Buzzcocks, Suicide and Germs. And being that Abbie has been infatuated with “The Man Who Fell to Earth” since her teens, there’s also a welcome spot of David Bowie. “20th Century Women” instantly takes you back to when those tunes were fresh and new, a time and place unspoiled by the Internet, terrorism and corporate greed. And while Mills’ characters are a little too good to be true, they still manage to feel utterly real and of the moment.

As such, their fates – which are revealed in the film’s many voiceovers – aren’t all happy, but some are; enough to bring you to tears. And the reason you’re moved is your level of involvement, which is all due to Mills, a filmmaker who puts so much of himself into his work, you can almost see yourself. And that’s a talent that’s relevant in any century. 20TH CENTURY WOMEN (R for sexual material, language, some nudity and brief drug use.) Cast: Annette Bening, Lucas Jade Zumann, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup. Grade: A